A washed up basketball player juggles a pregnant girlfriend and mounting personal problems while trying to make a big drug score in the shadow of the Rodney King riots.

Jamal works is a busboy at a small diner after being a basketball star. His dwindling dreams of stardom are shattered when he is savagely beaten and robbed for his Air Jordan tennis shoes. Battling depression, Jamal faces mounting pressure as he loses his job, has a pending eviction and is nagged by his pregnant girlfriend. After starting to sell drugs to alleviate his situation his former basketball coach is shot while unarmed by an LAPD officer investigating Jamal. His coaches' death becomes intertwined with events that lead up to the Rodney King riots, turning the city of Los Angeles into a powder keg.